Bleacher construction



Aug. 30, 1932.

H. D. OBERDORFER BLEACHBH CONSTRUCTION Filed March 30, 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 {I I Y L A A 1 INVENTOR.

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ATTORNEYS.

Aug. 30, 1932. H. D. OBERDORFER BLEACHER CONSTRUCTION Filed March so, 1931 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 I N VEN TOR.

A TTORNEYJ- Patented Aug. 30, 1932 PATENT orrlca HENRY D. OBERDORFER, OI NEW CASTLE, INDIANA,

ASBIGNOB TO CIRCLE A PRODUCTS CORPORATION, OF NEWCASTLE, INDIANA, A CORPORATION BLEACHEE CONSTRUCTION Application filed March 80,

This invention relates to a knockdown bleacher construction which may be assembled and positioned in locations'that would ordinarily require a reinforced footing and which may be readily knocked down and removed from said location, together with a temporary bearing provided as a substitute for the permanent footings heretofore required in similar locations. X

The chief object of the invention is to provide a knockdown bleacher construction which may be readily assembled and disas- -'sembled, and located as desired, irrespective of the footing and which is comprised of a minimum number of parts and these of relatively simple construction and arranged for ease in mounting and demounting.

One feature of the invention consists in the provision of a bearing member for each stringer, said bearing member extending substantially coextensive with the stringer but lying upon the supporting surface for transmitting the load supported by the stringer to the bearing member, which in turn, through the increased bearing area, transmits the same as a lower unit load to the supporting surface than heretofore has been the practice.

Another feature of the invention consists in the formation of the bleacher such that each stringer is supported by at least one upright strut which is inclined forwardly and which struts are connected in pairs by a detachable bracing unit.

Another feature of the invention consists in uniting the bleacher construction togethei to form the same solely through the foot and seat boards without uniting the adjacent uprigiits of adjacent pairs of unit carried uprig ts.

Another feature of the invention consists in the particular formation of the combination foot or seat board retainer and support construction, and the same is an improvement upon that shown in the prior co-pending application, Serial No. 379,907, filed July 22, 1929.

The full nature of the invention will be understood from the accompanying drawings and the following description and claims \j the stringer,

1931. Serial No. 528,298.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of one form of the bleacher construction. Fig. 2 is arear elevational view thereof. Fg. 3 is an elevational view of the bracing um Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a portion of the upright strut.

Fig. 5 is a side elevation of a portion of the upper end of the strut associated therewith and the detachable connection therebetween.

Fig. 6 is a side elevation of a modified form of the bleacher.

Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken on line 77 of Fig. 6 and in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 8 is an elevational view taken on line 88 of Fig. 6, and in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 9 is a bottom plan view of the seat and foot board mounting and support, and is taken on line 99 of Fig. 6.

Fig. 10 is a sectional v1ew taken on line 1010 of Fig. 9. I

Fig. 11 is an end elevation of a modified form of bleacher, intermediate portions being broken away.

Fig. 12 is an elevational view of a air of similar bracing units associated w1th the form of the invention shown in Fig. 11.

Fig. 13 is an enlarged elevational view, parts being broken away and shown in section, and illustrates the detachable connection between the upright strut and the bracing unit.

In the drawings, 10 indicates a bearing member which may be a wooden plank or metal plank or the like. It is elongated and of a length approximately equal to the horizontal projection of the inclined stringer indicated by the numeral 11. Stringer 11 is herein shown as an I-beam iron and in the present form of the invention carries upon its underface, a socket 12 that receives the upper end of the channel shaped upright strut 13, which is inclined forwardly and upwardly-see Fig. 1. The lower end of the strut 13 may be provided with a plate 14 which has one face bearing upon member 10 and one edge abutting a stop in the form of an angle plate 15.

In the form of theinvention shown in Fi 1, each stringer is shown supported by a p urality of upright struts and herein three u right struts are illustrated. These are of dissimilar length but each is similarly mounted and similarly braced. The lower forward end of the stringer in the present invention is suitably secured to a bearing member 16, to which is secured a bottom plate 17, the lower face of which bears upon the elongated bearing member 10. The forward edge of the plate 17 bears against a stop 18 in the form of an angle plate secured to the forward portion of the bearing member 101. Thus forward movement of the lower end of the stringer is prevented and by the aforesaid arrangement, a substantially triangular outline construction results, the collapsing of which is prevented by limiting the outward, separating movement of the lower ends of the stringer and the upright strut.

Each triangular unit is associated with an adjacent triangular unit and through a detachable connection with a unit brace construction which, herein, is shown rectangularsee Figs. 2 and 3and includes the rectangular frame 19 and one or more diagonal brace rods 20. Each frame in the present form of the invention includes at each end and upon opposite sides, outwardly projecting headed pins having the head portions 21. and the body portions 22.

Each strut in the present form of the invention is provided with a pair of keyhole slots, the elongated portion or seat being indicated by the numeral 23 and the entrance or head portion being indicated by the numeral 24:. Two transversely aligned upright struts are detachablyconnected together in co-operating, bracing relation through the unit bracesee Figs. 2 and 3-by the insertion of the pin heads 21 in the slot heads 24, and then droppingv the frame until the body portion or neck 22 of the pin seats in and bears upon the seating portion 23 of the keyhole slot. The two adjacent stringers supported by the brace connected struts are thus connected together and are relatively self sustaining against lateral or transverse collapse. In the form of the invention shown in Fig. 1, it will be evident that the sizes of the rectangular unit braces necessarily vary and correspond to the length of the upright struts.

' In the form of the invention shown in Fig. 1, the seat boards indicated at 25 are supported by an upwardly extending bracket 26,

:while the foot boards 27 are sustained from foot boards to the horizontal portions 29 and 30 respectively upon the brackets 26 and 28, may be of any desired or preferred construction but preferably is that illustrated in Fig. 9. Reference will be had hereinafter thereto.

In Fi s. 6 to 8 inclusive, there is illustrated a modi ed form of the invention. In this form of the invention, 110 indicates the elonwise, in the present orm of the invention,

the foot boards 127 are positioned above the stringer and are supported upon a horizontal portion 130, which is anchored at its forward end, as at 128, to the rear leg of one of the U-shaped uprights 126 and at its rearward end to the forward leg of a rearwardly positioned U-shaped member 126.

The stringer 111 supports the socket 112 which detachably receives the upper end of the strut 113. Strut 113 is provided with a pair of spaced keyhole openings having the head portions 124, the necks 123 of which receive the neck portions 122 of the headed pins 121 carried by a unit brace frame substantially similar to that shown in Fig. 3. The strut 113 is provided with the bearing plate 114 and the lower end of the stringer, in the present form of the invention, mounts a plate 117 which bears upon the elongated bearing member 110 and is directly connected to the lower end of the stringer-see Fig. 6. l

The side rail construction includes a top rail 140 in the form of an angle iron and one or more intermediate rails 142. Each is secured to a vertically positioned upright Fig. 6, one of the members 147 is shown sepa- .rate and apart from the foot board support,

while another of the members is shown as a forward projection thereof.

In Figs. 6 and 8, there is illustrated the back rail and the mounting therefor. In said figures, 150 indicates the top rail which is an angle iron, 151 the intermediate rails, 152 an angle iron upright which has a plurality of detachable connections 153, with an angle plate 154 secured to the stringer as at 155.

With the aforesaid construction, it will be apparent that the back rail and the side rails of the bleacher are readily detachable and are supported upon the stringer or stringer support parts.

The preferred form of board mounting for either the seat boards or the foot boards, is hereinillustrated as applied to the seat boards. A pair of seat boards 125 are arthe stringer to the strut. This form ofthe ranged in longitudinal alignment and in substantial abutment-see Figs. 9 and 10. The

vunderface of one of the boards mounts a plate 160 which projects be ond the end of the board as at 161 and un erlies the other end of the adjacent board. The bracket member 160--16l terminates in a depending tongue 162 and said bracket member is sultably secured to the board as at 163.

Another and similar bracket member 164 has a depending tongue 165 and said tongues,

.\ when the boards are positioned in substantially end to end abutting relation, lie substantially parallel to each other and immediately adjacent each other. The bracket 164 is similarly mounted as at 166 u on the end of the adjacent board 125 but this racket does not project beyond the supporting board.

The angle iron upright or seat support 126 has the horizontal, transverse supporting portion 129 which herein is slotted as at 167. When the board 125 with the bracket 160161 is positioned so that it rests upon the horizontal supporting portion 129, the tongue 162 will seat in the slot 167 of the horizontal portion. The end of the board 125 will register with the horizontal portion 129. The other seat board 125, when its tongue 165 is positioned in the slot 167, has its end terminating in registration with the horizontal portion 129 and the portion immediately adjacent the end of said board overlies the projecting portion 161 of the bracket 160.

The means for anchoring the last mentioned board 125 to the horizontal portion 129 and thereby locking the other board to the same horizontal support, includes a cam locking construction comprising the cam member 170, pivoted at 171 and provided with the handle portion 172. When the handle portion 172 is positioned as shown in Fig. 9, the cam locking portion 170 underlies the horizontal portion 129 and serves to lock both seat boards to the supporting portion. When the handle 17 0 is positioned at right angles to the aforesaid positioning, the seat board 125 may be readily removed and thereafter the other adjacent seat board, which does not support the cam locking member, may thereupon be removed.

In Figs. 11 to 13, inclusive, there is illustrated a modified form of the invention, and in this form certain of the features hereinbefore specifically described, are incorporated. In this form of the invention, the elongated bearing member is indicated by the numeral 210, the stringer by numeral 211, the forward stop carried by member 210 by the numeral 218, and the angle plate stop limiting rearward movement of the upright strut 213 is indicated by the numeral 215.

In this form of the invention, near the upper end of the upright strut there is a bracket 21241. which transmits the load from invention has a pin and slot connection, indicated as at 212, which is utilized in assembling the bleacher to hold the strut and strlnger together until the brace units are secured to the struts. The upright strut in this modification, as well as that shown in Fig. 6, consists of an angle iron and in this modification the head of keyhole slot is indicated by the numeral 224. The heads of the pins 221 of the unit frame 219 having the diagonal bracing 220 are associated with a pair of adjacent struts.

As shown in Fig. 11, the longer strut is provided with a number of slots for detachably mounting apair of similar or identical brace units, two identical brace units, being illustrated in Fig. 12 and bein provided for association with the right han strut, shown in Fig. 11. It may, however, be desired to form two dilferent sizes of rectangular brace units and in this manner a single smaller size unit may be utilized with the smallest strut, a large size unit with the second strut, a small and a large unit with the third strut and two large units with the fourth strut.

The rail construction in the present form of the invention is illustrated as including a socket 246, that receives the lower end of the upright 243 which mounts the top rail 240 and the intermediate rail 242 of the side rail struts. The back rail construction includes the socket 254 which receives the lower end of the upright 252 which is of pipe formagion, the top rail being connected to the elbow In Figs. 12 and 13, there is illustrated additional locking means which is arranged to positively lock the detachable parts in the attached position and prevent accidental detachment of said parts.

In the present form of the invention, this locking means consists of the ordinary twoposition sliding bolt, indicated generally by the numeral 270 and slidably mounted in the tubular guide 271, secured by the plate 272 to the unit frame 219. The tubular guide 271 has the two lateral grooves 273 and 274 and a connecting groove 275. The bolt 270 mounts a pin 276 which terminates in a finger engagement knob 277. This is the ordinary lock bolt.

The frame shown in Fig. 12 is provided with one of the locking constructions at each upper end. The bolt is normally retracted with the stem 276 seated in slot 273. After the head of the pin 221, has been passed through the head 224 of thekeyhole slot, the neck 222 of the pin drops into the neck 223 of the slot and thereupon the unit frame is interlockingly connected to the upright 213. Thereafter, the bolt actuator 276 is moved from the slot 273, through the slot 275 into the slot 274 and then turned laterally. In this movement, the bolt 270 is projected into the opening or head 224 of the keyhole slot and when the portion 276 is turned laterally so as to nest 1n the lateral portion of the notch 274, the bolt 270 prevents any upward movement of the frame relative to the strut.

This locking addition is provided to prevent accidental separation or disengagement between the frame and of the uprights. This might readily occur should the persons supported by the bleacher begin to move in unison, as by stomping and the-like, which might cause the accidental, upward jumping or movement of the unit frame and thus permit the accidental disengagement of the frame from the uprights.

The invention claimed is 1. In a knockdown bleacher the combination of a lurality of upwardly inclined stringers, a orwardly and upwardly directed strut for each-stringer and lying in vertlcal alignment with the stringer and having an interlocking connection with an elevated portion of the aligned stringer, means preventing outward separatmg movement of the lower ends of the aligned strut and stringer,

and a rectangular bracing unit detachably interlocked with a pair of laterally aligned and adjacent struts.

2. A device as defined by claim 1 characterized by said outward separation preventing means including a bearing member longitudinally aligned with the stringer and having spaced portions operatively associated with the lower ends of the stringer and associated strut for the purpose set forth, said member distributing the bearing load from the point of stringer support to the point of strut support and to the supporting surface or ground.

3. A device as defined by'claim 1 characterized by the addition of a second bracing unit similarly associated with the same struts, said units being superposed relative to each other.

4. A device as defined by claim 1 characterized by the addition of a manual operable lock for locking the strut and unit together when associated together. f

5. 'A device as defined by claim l characters. A device as defined by claim 1 characterized by the stringer and strut connection comprisiipg a. headed pin and keyhole slot arrangemen 9. In a knockdown bleacher construction a support having a horizontal upper face, a

transverse ed e and a transverse slot, a pair 10 \A device as defined by claim 9 c aracterized by the addition of another bracket carriedby the underside of the other board and inclliding a portion seatable in said slot.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto affixed my signature.

HENRY D. OBEBDORFEB.

ized by the addition of a manual operable lock\,

for locking the strut and unit together when associated together, said lock being carried by one of said last mentioned interlocking parts, and operatively associated with the interlocking portion of the other part thereof. 6. A device as defined by claim 1 characterized by the stringer and strut connection including a socket carried by said stringer for receiving the upper end of the strut and confining the same therein against all but longi- 4 tudinal separation.

7 A device as defined by claim 1 characterized by the bracing unit and strut connection comprising a headed pin and keyhole slot arrangement. I 

